The Adventures of Tintin 1949 comic Prisoners of the Sun. 15 July 1916 The Ross Sea party was a component of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–17. Five men were stranded not far away from Cape Evans. There was sea ice between them and the relative safety of the hut on Cape Evans. On 8 May two of the men, Aeneas Mackintosh and Victor Hayward, decided to make an attempt to reach the hut. Soon after they set out a blizzard hit. When the weather cleared up, the remaining men tried to look for them, but realized that the ice was far too thin to cross, and that their friends had been lost. Now they knew that they should wait for a thicker ice and for the full moon to attempt the crossing. Having the full moon was essential, because during polar night the Moon is the only source of natural light other than the extremely dim light of the stars. The weather did not cooperate during the full moon of June, but on 15 July, everything seemed to be just right: calm weather, thick ice, clear skies and a full moon. The men started their journey in the morning. When the Moon rose, however, the men were surprised to find it was about to be eclipsed. Ernest Wild wrote later: Although the eclipse continued for a few hours, the men were fortunate because it was only a partial eclipse. They reached Cape Evans later on the same day. See also Lunar eclipses by century References Lunar eclipses Archaeoastronomy